Lost during Argentina's 'dirty war,' grandson emerges (w/video)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — A music teacher in Argentina emerged in public Friday after being thrust into the limelight as a symbol of his country's reckoning with the brutal dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s.

Ignacio Hurban introduced himself to the public as the long-sought grandson of Estela de Carlotto, a human rights activist who has spent the past 36 years searching for him and other children taken from their parents during the country's "dirty war."

Hurban, 36, said he decided to have his DNA tested and compared to samples in a database of families of leftists and other government opponents who were killed or disappeared during the 1976-83 dictatorship.

The results linked him to de Carlotto, whose daughter, Laura, a university activist, was executed in a clandestine military jail in August 1978, two months after she had given birth.

Hurban, from the small city of Olavarria, urged others who may wonder about their heritage to come forward and help resolve the fate of about 400 more children whose whereabouts remain unknown.

He brushed aside attempts to find out about his adoption, telling reporters he was brought up "by an extraordinary couple with the greatest of love."

During the dictatorship, children of the regime's opponents were taken and given to families sympathetic to the regime.

Ignacio Hurban, 36, makes his first public appearance Friday since he was identified.